Homesick
by cornelialover
Summary: Walter and Paige decide they can just work out as friends, nothing else more, after a month from the events of 4x22. Will they manage to bare their feelings and move on like that?
1. Chapter 1

**About the cancelling... I am not ready to move on. Nothing else to say. So here it is. The title of the story you will just understand on later chapters. I have no idea how many chapters this will get, perhaps just this one (?) that's on you guys. You tell me what I should do. I just want to fix this without so many angst, cause many writers here are already doing this for us (thank you, for the record). I want to do it with some fun, guess I need it more than anyone.**

 **Well... i've been working on this since the cancellation. It took me so long to post due to my lovely university that keeps throwing tests on me. Whatever.. it's focused on Waige, but it will involve the entire team, okay? So here we go.**

XX

Paige shivered on her bed as she recalled the smooth touch of his lips sliding onto her neck, exactly in that way he used to wake her up when they're getting late for some random case. Paige couldn't help but ruminate how much Walter used to be so shy at the beginning of their intimacy, and how it didn't take him so long for starting to do more physical contact with all her body during the months. Suddenly the genius was so drowned into her presence on his previous personal and unreachable space that he hasn't even realized how much a fan of contact he had turned out to be. He used to touch her a lot after the adaption phase. Touch her in a way no man had ever done. He was careful, attentive, delicate. He made her feel like a potential precious pearl. He made her recognize the value she didn't know she still had after everything she had gone through in the past. And now... she was on her bed. Just alone.

 _Relationships are messy, that's their nature..._

Her memory wasn't cooperating to her morning reflection. First she had another stupid dream about him, and now some so small but so significant conversations they once had were rising up all the time. Geez, why can't Walter just leave her alone?

Paige shook her head. Walter hadn't any real fault on her morning disturb. And perhaps neither on their current situation. It wasn't just a few times that Paige questioned herself if everything that happened that night was strictly necessary. She hated herself for allowing things to get so far. She and Walter were doing so well before all of this happens. They had had some issues, but they were genuinely fine after all. She was happy, he was happy. Paige could easily remember that. They were having family dinners. Later talking on the phone. Cuddling (and other stuff) on bed. Having fun together. Discussing even science together. They were still sharing looks only they could understand the meaning. They were still saying "I love you" and giving sweet kisses before leaving. They weren't definitely in a bad time for the relationship. They were just fine. Things shouldn't have gotten so out of control.

After all, Paige couldn't understand why everything turned out so badly. Her insecurities certainly interfered on her reaction at the moment, but it was senseless on her mind why she still kept so mad about it weeks later. It seemed like her brain knew she was overreacting, but meantime, her heart wasn't willing to let go the hurting yet. Therefore, already conflicted and frustrated with herself, and not thrilled to get any more of it, Paige set up on the bed and started to dig on papers from her work with Centipede for the day.

Restless, she couldn't focus. So, making one more of the impulsive decisions she was making lately, the ex-waitress texted Sly for warning her team she would be late that morning. Then, Paige quickly got dressed and headed herself to get a hot cup of coffee from Kovelsky's. It was now her time to escape a bit from this messed up reality.

XX

Struggling to pick a table where she and Walter had never sat together before, she gave up after a half glance around. This was ridiculous. It didn't matter where she would sit. She was fine.

Paige, so, stepped closer to a small table at the corner of the place and finally adjusted herself on the chair. After the first sip of coffee slipped through her throat, she felt better.

Staring at nowhere while enjoying her hot drink was how the woman stayed at Kovelsky's for several minutes. Her thoughts flying freely, her body moving almost unconsciously. She was just trying to find some peace. It was definitely not on her plans to be surprised by someone else that morning.

"Paige." The voice spoke with firmness. It took her neither a second for recognizing it.

"Oh, God, Walter." The ex-waitress rested her hand on her chest, startled at the sudden appearance. The genius had already sat in the other side of the table when she continued: "What are you doing here?"

"Look, I'm aware of how pissed you are at me. But you know what? I don't care. I need your help and you are gonna listen to me." He said fast as if he had planned and rehearsed for this line many times before.

"Ahm... how did you know I was here?" Raising her eyebrows, she could swear Walter blushed a little.

He shook his head, trying to stall. "Just a... coincidence."

"Oh, yeah." Paige sighed. "Let's pretend I don't know you and your particular ways to always find out about anything you wanna know from this world."

Her harsh tone was just a way to hide the conflict rising up inside her mind again.

"I'm talking seriously, Paige. I quit fighting with you. Please set aside your anger and do this for me too." His expression was mixed. Anxious, worried, confused.

 _I don't want there to be anything between us._ Dammit, she thought.

"What do you want, Walter?" If he were just a little less attentive, he would never notice the slight softening her voice took this time.

"I... well, first I wanna say something." Walter scratched his head, processing. His eyes glanced away from hers.

"You can say it." The woman let out a breath, seeming soft now. Something inside her wished they could talk normal again as well.

Silence. He was trying to formulate his words. She knew he needed his time. She had always waited calmly until he was ready, it wasn't any different now.

"Ahm, okay. Well... Paige, I am going through a lot of tough things lately. And the thing is, I am not capable of handling so much of this all by myself." He took a deep breath. "I understood your point when you made very clear to me that we might never work out as a couple. But..." then he came back looking at her. "We have already worked out at least as friends before. And... I sort of miss my friend Paige. I hate saying that, but it's true. I miss our friendship. Our conversations. I need you, your support. Please, I need my best friend back. Do this for me. For us. I hate the distance between us." He concluded, scared as hell of her reaction. The woman stared at him for a few seconds, surprised by the statement.

"How do you suppose we can be just friends after all that happened between us, Walter?" Paige sighed after a while. Things were so far from simple, and the genius may totally don't see it.

"Well, it doesn't look so hard. We just have to separate things efficiently." He frowned. The woman shook her head.

"I don't find it as easy as you are saying so. It's not just separate. It's not just rational. This is emotional, and emotions are not solved like that. I can't pretend there was never something intense between us." She pointed, keeping her patience.

"Oh, me neither. I don't want you to forget that. We went through intense months and it didn't turn out fine, now I just don't want us to never look at each other's face anymore. It doesn't make sense. This is killing me. Tell me it isn't killing you and I leave." Who could ever have guessed Walter could be so good at arguing about emotions? Paige was totally caught by surprise again.

Plus, after that, she had zero strength for lying.

"Despite my anger... yes, Walter, of course it's killing me." The ex-waitress acknowledged, bringing the fact for the first time out loud.

"And in a zero to ten scales, how is your anger doing right now?" He asked with a small of excitement on the eyes. There was still hope.

"I-I don't know." Her heartbeat accelerated. "Maybe three?"

"Good. That feels lovely to hear." He joked, making her roll her eyes. "Now, what's weighting more? The anger or the distance?"

"Okay, O'Brien, I got it. Yes, perhaps it wouldn't hurt if we be friends again. I miss my best friend too." The admission came out quickly from her mouth, followed by her look lowering down to the coffee. Neither herself could believe she said it.

"Paige, we both had our parts at this, so we can both save our friendship as well." He kept swinging his whole posture side to side, pretty restless.

"It's okay, I guess. Maybe it's gonna take some time for me to get used to it, okay?" She warned. She really wanted to make her anger disappear like magic, but there was no such thing.

"Meanwhile, we could talk about something. As friends." He emphasized, handing up his hand for a high-five. Paige frowned, slapping it awkwardly.

"I don't mean minutes, Walter." She slid her bottom lip under her teeth, starting to shake her legs anxiously.

"Oh. That's okay." He processed, seeming baffled. "Do you want me to leave, then?" Walter tried to hide his baffled and disappointed face.

As soon as Paige noticed his reaction, she sighed. After all, a small talk in a Kovelsky's table couldn't be so bad. "Know what? Why don't you tell me about what's bothering you?" She offered, and her body warmed completely by seeing a shining expression rising up again on him. Some voice deep inside her consciousness told her this 'friends' thing was not supposed to work out, but suddenly she desperately wanted to figure it out all by herself.

"Well... if you say so..." he shrugged, making a pause. "I need help. W-with Florence."

"Oh, seriously?" Paige then felt as if a bottle of cold water had fallen all over her head. Was he playing with her feelings? She had innocently let him in again, now he was trying to make revenge?

"No, it's not what you're thinking! I promise you." He hurried with an explanation, catching her hands above the table in order to transmit confidence. As much as his touch felt reassuring, Paige couldn't let Walter to mix things, he was the one that said 'friends' in the first place. So, she quickly pulled back her hands to her lap. Walter got stunned, but continued speaking for masking it. "I mean, she is chasing me. It's no new for you that I have zero romantic interest for her. But when I invited her to join my new team, she understood everything wrong. She is thinking I'm on her. Now she can't stop stalking me everywhere I go, and it's driving me nuts." Walter made his point. "I want tell her to back off, but I have no idea how should I do this without being a jerk." When he let out a breath as finished, Paige bit her lip.

"And you wanted my help?" She had no clue of which face she was supposed to make.

"Yeah, you know, you were the one that helped me before with all the relationships I had." Walter ran his hand through his head. This was getting weirder each second.

"It was before I was the one to have a relationship with you. And for the record, I hated being your dating consultant. I was always jealous." Paige crossed her arms. Walter tried to read her body language, but he couldn't be sure if she was really denying help or just playing hard, as she always enjoyed doing.

"So this is not too different as before." he smiled playfully, rising his eyebrows in the expectation of figuring out her mood. Paige couldn't tell where his whole sense of humor for today came from. Although, she couldn't help letting out a small laugh.

"You really don't have any idea of how awkward this is, do you?" She tried to suppress the smile.

"Actually, not exactly." He seemed confused.

"Doesn't matter. I'll help you anyway." She stated. The air between them was becoming more pleasant.

"Will you?" He smiled surprised. She had been just playing hard after all.

"Yeah, but just for the record, this is actually way different from before, cause I have no reasons to be jealous anymore." The ex-waitress pointed, now struggling to sound serious. Walter stared at her for a couple of seconds. Both were thinking the same thing, and both deciding not to say it out loud.

"If you say so." He nodded.

"Now, let's teach you the art of dumping someone without being a moron." She rested her arms in the table.

"Are you sure do you know anything about that?" He asked, remembering the way she'd dumped him. Paige's eyes widened. When she seemed to have no idea of what to say, Walter broke out laughing. "Just kidding, just kidding!"

"Well," she shook her head after a couple of seconds, kinda baffled. "You are being too comical today, don't you think?"

"You just did a wrong choice of words. The joke was stronger than me." Walter justified himself, breathing to recover air.

"Not funny." She stated blushed, slapping his forearm above the table.

"I'm sorry." He suppressed a grin.

"I guess I was the one that should be saying this." Still embarrassed, the woman tried to hide a smile too.

"It's okay, we're over it. You can continue now." He rested his back at the cushioned sit, staring playfully at her mixed expression.

"I'll just delete this last part of our conversation from my mind." She pointed almost in a whisper, adjusting her position. She looked at his face and sighed briefly before starting to speak. "Walter, you need to be honest with her about your feelings. But... you also must, once and for all, learn the difference between honesty and rudeness in the first place."

"Ahm… maybe that's my problem."

"Maybe? Why am I so sure about it?" it was her turn to play with him, which he quickly picked up with a small grin. "Now, seriously. Keep this in mind: you'll break her heart anyway, you cannot avoid that, but what you can surely do is not smashing it into pieces. Be nice, you know? Just put across your ideas as if she doesn't have any hit of fault about the way you feel. Tell her you enjoy her fellowship as a friend and colleague and..." _Friends slash colleagues._ Paige felt sick. "and... that you appreciate her work for Scorpion, but you don't like her romantically. Explain your reasons, whatever they might be."

"It sounds much simpler than it is." He bit his lips, sighing.

"I assure you, you have enough EQ for doing it." She encouraged him, remembering the disaster of calling his EQ close to fifteen. She wished she could apologize for everything, but it didn't felt as the right time. "Don't... don't say she is bothering you or something like that. Just tell her you didn't want her to feel bad, but you figured the sooner she knew about the true, the less it would hurt." the woman paused, wishing he couldn't pick up the double meaning of her speech. "Tell her you don't wanna give her false hopes. And let her figure out the rest by herself, there's no need to tell her to back off, this would be… mean. She will do it, at her time. And watch your voice tone. She is not like me so she will probably don't yell at you if you keep a soft one." Paige grinned in the end, in order to ease the light strangeness formed. If he had decided to talk open and naturally about their broke up, so would she. As a matter of fact, it was certainly a big deal for Walter to be handling it so... maturely. As if he was truly over it. And Paige, on the other hand, had no idea if this was supposed to be good or bad to her.

"Oh, c'mon, it's impossible for anyone to reach you up at this subject." He teased back, making her open her mouth indignantly.

"You are so far-fetched!" She exclaimed, while feeling a relief about he keeping his good mood despite her full-of-ambiguity advice. Perhaps he hadn't picked up. Perhaps he was, indeed, completely over them.

"I just state facts, remember?" He made his know-it-all face, making her roll the eyes.

"I hate you, O'Brien." Paige was opening a smile. "I'm here, giving you advices, and you keep mocking me!"

"But you started this time!" It was his turn to have indignation.

"Shhhh, focus at Florence." She tried to disguise.

"What a smart girl you are, huh?" He shook his head, teasing again. "You know, I still think she will be mad." Walter made a face, and Paige took a few seconds to realize he really came back to the Florence subject.

"Well, we can't control people's reaction, Walter... Just make sure that at least you've done your part right, okay?" Paige crossed her arms. He had a strange look, and Paige assumed he was thinking. However, what she got was...

"Should I get worried about you planning to break down my company by setting Florence aside?" He questioned, but far away from seriously.

"Walter!" The woman threw a napkin at him, and now she was giggling.

"What? We never know!" he couldn't stand with his serious expression for so long, beginning to giggle with her.

 _I could never get bored of you._

Another memory. And worst thing about it was that, truth be told, right now it didn't look like she had ever been pissed at him. They were there, laughing together, making jokes, and Paige realized how such a long time it had been since the last time she felt so great. She had totally forgotten of how big was his ability to make her laugh and how comfortable she could be around him. This entire time being so distant... she had had no clue anymore of how much he could make the difference in her day. In her mood. In her whole world.

"That's not fair." She slowly stopped to laugh, recovering her air.

"What's not fair?" He did the same, resting his arms on the table. When Paige copied his move, their hands were resting with just a tiny space between them. Paige wanted so much to reach his over, but she chose to educated herself with some self-control.

"I thought it would take me some time to get used with a friendship between us after all we've been through. But suddenly I'm feeling so... comfortable and peaceful. It's funny cause I wasn't considering any of this by the time I woke up today." She looked away while tapping the table with her fingers, as Walter watched the small empty space between their hands.

"Well, I… I had faith that... even if we lose everything else, this would never get lost. Our... chemistry. You know, a-as friends." he kept staring at the hands as he turned anxious, worried that Paige would misunderstand his words.

"I got it, Walt." She reassured him instead. "I guess I just needed a small push."

"Yeah, I mean, it was all so fast that night, I like to think that... in a way, we've never really stopped being friends after all." He pulled back his hands to his own lap before having the chance to do something he wasn't supposed to. His fingers were eager to touch hers. It has been so long...

"This is actually a sweet way to see it." She smiled, and Walter could swear she was acting shy. She didn't use to do that a lot, but he remembered how he used to love seeing her timidity about something he'd said. "In this last month, I let my anger drown me completely. I wish I could have seen things this way since the beginning."

"Let's just leave it behind us." Walter didn't know exactly what to say, so he tried a half-smile.

"Yeah. I'm glad we had this conversation. Thank you." Paige pressed her lips together.

"Even with the awkwardness?"

She giggled again. "Kinda used to it." The woman twisted her nose playfully. Walter also used to love her facial expressions.

He sighed. "You don't seem to get used completely." He frowned lightly, advancing in a subject Paige knew they would come through soon or later. She sighed too.

"Yeah, you're right. But that's the funny part. How would you guys surprise me otherwise?" She bit her lips. Deep down, she was trying to fix the damage she'd caused inside him.

"So you don't..."

"I don't." She confirmed even though he hadn't finished his sentence. It wasn't necessary. She knew that look at his eyes. No, she doesn't find him boring. She never did. "By the way, it was very EQ of you to show up and start this talk with me. I... well, maybe you are not an emotion teenager after all." she was clumsy with her words. She really wanted him to understand that. "I've always known that. Sorry about what I said."

"We're okay now, don't worry, Paige. We are just as before, back to normal. Friends again." Walter concluded, but the woman was so affected by his words that she didn't notice Walter didn't seem thrilled about it neither.

 _You are the love of my life._

 _You are the love of my life, too._

Paige closed her eyes. Her hormones were definitely not helping. Boy, this would be harder than she'd thought.

"Yeah. Back to normal." She opened them again and took a deep breath, feeling suddenly hot.

Friends. Not loves of each other lives anymore. _Get used to it, Dineen._

"Are you okay?"

"Ah-ahm, yeah, of course. I just... you know, it's getting late and the guys are waiting for me." The ex-waitress looked at her watch, still kinda baffled.

"Yeah, we probably should go. I need to talk to Florence as soon as I get in the garage." Walter shook his head.

"You can do this. Tell me later how it turned out." The woman reached his arm and stroked it. Walter felt his heartbeat accelerate.

"I'll call you." He was happy by her request. "Let's go."

The two of them were walking side by side towards the entering glass door. When they reached the street, they turned to face each other in the same time.

"So… Ralph is staying at the garage this weekend, right?" she said the first thing that came up in her mind, just in order to stall. She didn't want to leave.

"Yeah, I've… planned some real cool stuff for him." He laughed slightly, hands in the pocket, eyes at the ground.

"Good." Paige ran his eyes through his whole body. _Separate things, Paige. Separate._

"So, friend…" the man scratched his head. "Wanna watch a movie any time soon?" he finally glanced at her eyes.

Paige grinned.

"Y-yeah, of course. Why not?" she bit her lips with certain strength. She was nervous.

"Good." He smiled too. "So, I see you."

"See you." Then, they both stepped closer to each other to say goodbye properly. However, almost involuntarily, just by force of habit, Paige's hands headed directly to his cheeks, and Walter's directed themselves rightly to her waist. Perhaps his face also got a little closer, just as if he was going to give her these goodbye kisses. Unfortunately, they both realized their moves before they could touch each other, and then they both froze. Paige sighed and backed off, followed by him. Both embarrassed, they couldn't look at each other's eyes.

"Bye, Walter." She spoke first, cause despite her embarrassing she knew he was probably worse inside. So, in order to show him this was not a big deal, she stepped closer and kissed his cheek, without any other touch beside this one. They should get used to it.

"Bye, Paige." He smiled shyly. She did the same just before turning around and following the opposite direction from his.

Yeah, perhaps he had moved on. Perhaps not yet. It shouldn't matter. They were going to be just friends, and Paige was pretty happy for that. They were never good as lovers anyway, she thought. This was the best they could do.

Right?

XX

 **So... should i leave this as an one-shot or continue it? I have the entire story planned. So you decide! Review it if you can, I'll be grateful.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi guys! Thank you so much for the feedback! So, as I've already said sometimes, English is not my first language, so I apologizeeeee for my mistakes.**

 **XX**

 _"Hey, how did it go?" She picked up the phone already curious, jumping straightly on her bed._

 _Walter smiled on the other side, so quietly that she couldn't notice. "You were right. She didn't yell at me."_

 _"See? That's only my area of expertise." The woman giggled softly._

 _"I told you." His laugh was low. "She was not mad, by the way. She just seemed... disappointed."_

 _"Just give her some time. To process." Paige laid down, embracing a pillow._

 _"Process." He repeated with a sigh. "Okay."_

 _"It's gonna be fine, Walt."_

 _"I know, I know. It was the right thing to do. I'm just… thoughtful." The man sat down on the edge of his bed, staring at the ground._

 _Paige wished she could see his expression. "About what?" Her tone was light._

 _Walter made a loudly sigh by formulating his answer. "You know, I'm not sure." The certainty in his voice, though, seemed odd and almost fake to her._

 _"Okay. You're lying to me." Paige laughed again, being totally laid-back about it._

 _"No, I'm not!" Walter blurted, badly desperate to hide whatever he was wondering before._

 _"Walt, I know you. It's okay, seriously. You don't need to tell me if you don't want to." She attempted to reassure the genius. He frowned. Paige being too kind with him about a supposed lie was weird. But then he remembered they were just friends now, logically she wouldn't press him to tell her anything at all._

 _"I assure you it was nothing." Walter smiled tenderly, and this time the woman was able of noticing. Involuntarily, she smiled too._

 _Maybe there was no such thing as magic, as the ex-waitress had thought in the beginning of that day, but something else surely managed to make her anger dissolve as fast as if it was never there._

"Summarizing, it was this." She finished updating her team about the situation with Walter O'Brien. Of course, she hadn't mentioned the anger-dissolving part, she kind of knew what Toby might say about that - and deep down she didn't want to listen. Paige hadn't told anything to them about her new friendship with Walter until today, three days after the meeting at Kovelsky's. And the only reason she was doing it now was because Walter was on his way for stopping by and picking up Ralph to spend the weekend. If she hadn't filled them in before, she would have to come through an interrogatory later.

"Man, you two joke about your broke up fight. That's not normal." Sly was making a disgusting face.

Paige rolled her eyes. The three people in front of her were with the same frowned expressions. "We have never been normal. Besides, we do this cause we didn't want to be friends acting as if our past has never existed. We talk about our relationship because it happened and now we're over it. Like grown ups." The woman crossed her arms, sticking up firmly for her point.

"She's in denial." Toby got closer to his wife's ear, whispering.

"She definitely is." Happy shook her head while Paige looked at her. The ex-waitress was about to protest, but the Centipede office's bell started to ring.

Ralph left the kitchen with the backpack settled when he heard the sound. He was excited about spending the weekend with Walter, not as if this hadn't happened multiple times since the team broke up. By the way, Ralph was still unaware about his mom and Walter's conversation either. Paige was trying to protect him from false hopes.

"Go open the door for your new friend, miss." Toby teased her, making her give him the tongue in response. When Paige headed to open the door, followed by the confused kid behind her, Happy, Toby and Sly made sure they went out of view. None of them was thrilled to small talk with 197 at this time of Friday afternoon.

"Hey, genius boy." Paige smiled throughout the open door. Ralph already found odd that Walter knocked up for catching him, once the older genius used to just call and wait in the car - in order to avoid Centipede. Now seeing his mom greeting the ex-boyfriend with such a good mood was even weirder.

"Hi, smarty girl." He smiled back, glancing at Ralph in a row.

"Okay, what's going on?" The kid expressed his confusion.

"Nothing, baby. Just behave, okay? I'll call you before bed time." Paige kissed her son's forehead. When the woman glanced back to Walter, she saw his eyes searching for something else in the room. Paige had no idea of how much the genius missed his friends, and how frustrated he could get by understanding the message that they clearly still didn't want to see him.

"Walt." She called, bringing the guy back to reality.

"Oh. Okay. Ready, buddy? We see you later, Paige." as soon as he felt lie a complete dumb about actually going there in the first place, Walter hurried to leave. Somehow, the ex-waitress managed to read his thoughts, but her lack of ideas of what to say made her feel terribly nervous.

"Ahm... no dangerous experiments, remember?" She chose to stall.

"We know, mom." Ralph was already running into the car. "Love you!" The boy yelled right before closing the door from the passenger sit.

"He's never dangerous with me." Walter tried a smile, clearly just pretending he was fine. Paige, instead, ignored it completely by surprising the guy with a hug.

"Eventually, they will show up. Don't worry." She whispered next to his ear. Letting him go seconds later, she saw his eyes filled with kindness. Then, a small curl on the side of his mouth was being formed.

Any other word wasn't necessary. His whole expression meant more than anything. Still a bit disconcerted, though, Walter turned back to the car and the woman finally shut the door again, letting out a brief sigh.

"You know, this looks almost like shared parenting." Toby couldn't help himself from silly jokes.

Paige shrugged. "Walter and Ralph have a connection. It doesn't matter if he is not the real father or if we never had the chance to get married for him to be his stepfather."

"Never say never." Happy suppressed her lips while raising her eyebrows.

"Haven't you noticed our currently situation?" Paige was insisting hardly for the team to believe her.

"I think _you_ haven't noticed! You and 197 are drooling all over each other again." The shrink walked towards the kitchen to grab himself some water.

 _You two are sweet on each other._

 _Objection!_

Paige couldn't believe she was going through this again. Geniuses could be so exhausting…

"Toby, we made up. As. Friends. It was senseless for the two of us to just hate each other. We had shared our lives for so long; it felt awful to just throw it away. And more, if you don't recall, we actually were friends before dating." Paige followed him, being followed by the two others at the same time.

"C'mon, you were never _just_ friends before dating." Sylvester pointed out.

"Sorry, Dineen, but I can't buy it either." Happy leaned in the balcony, crossing her arms with a smirk playing on the lips.

"It's just me or it feels like betraying?" Sly directed his question for the married couple.

"Hey, I'm not betraying you guys!" The non-genius blurted. "Walter and I just hang out once until now, okay? It's not gonna be what you're thinking. But you know what, I won't try to convince you anymore, you'll see it with your own little and stubborn eyes." Paige sounded determined, but almost frustrated as well. This way, she threw an ironic smile to each one of them and headed back to her desk.

Toby took a sip of water, observing her leaving. "Okay, guys, your bets?" He dropped the question as soon as Paige was far enough for not hearing it.

"Two months for them to realize they're completely fooling themselves with this lame excuse." Happy stated.

"Well, I'm the math guy. I give a month." Sylvester raised his eyebrows.

"Let the games begin." Toby grinned, there would be surely funny months ahead, and he had everything prepared for messing around about it.

XX

 _Sunday, 9 pm._

"Hey, mom." Ralph opened the garage door and stumbled into a confused look from his mother.

"Why are you wearing a facial protector?" it was the first thing she said.

"Well... we sort of built a weapon." The boy simply confessed. Paige widened her eyes.

"Didn't you guys understand the meaning of nothing dangerous? Where's Walter?" The woman instantly stepped in the garage, glancing around.

"Mom, hold on, everything is under contr..." Ralph trailed off when a thunderous noise came out directly from the back of the kitchen. The boy scratched his hair.

"Walter!" The mother and son ran, reaching the place where the older genius was almost entirely covered by wreckage from the back wall and a part of the ceiling.

"Oh... Ralph, it works, but I think the sights are gonna need some adjustments." Walter managed to speak, since his head was the only free part of his body.

"Oh, my God." Paige watched the scene with an O in the mouth. It was possible to see the loft through the hole made by the weapon on the ceiling. "Are you two insane?"

"This is cool, mom! Walt is fine, look at him." Ralph pointed the bigger genius.

"Little help?" The man asked. Paige quickly approached the wreck, trying to reach over the guy. The kid started to remove some blocks above Walter meanwhile Paige got on her knee to look for his arms.

"Boy, you definitely wanna be arrested by FBI. Look at this thing." Paige glanced to the weapon, which measured half of her size.

"It's just for fun." Walter smiled playfully.

"Oh, I can see." Paige stated with irony, despite smiling tenderly in sequence. Finally finding his arm under the mess, she tried to pull him out. "Ralph, help me over here."

With some struggling, the two of them managed to lift Walter up again.

"Are you okay?" Paige checked on him, evidently worried.

"Yeah, I don't think I broke any bone." Limping, Walter took a few steps back to the kitchen. "Thank you, Paige. I'll call some guy tomorrow to fix that mess."

The ex-waitress bit her bottom lip, lightly tapping his hair and shoulder in attempt to dust him off. The genius smiled due to her act, turning around to face her. Paige was unusually shy about touching him tonight, so that's why she blushed a little. Having no idea of what to answer, they both just stared at each other for a few seconds.

Suddenly, Paige felt something fluffy sneaking itself on her uncle. She was startled in the first moment, but her eyes received a huge glow of joy when she looked down.

"Ferret Bueller! Oh, my God, I missed you, baby!" Paige took the ferret in the arms, then he quickly snuggled up on her chest and neck.

"Oh, he fled the cage again. I guess I'm gonna need to make him a stronger one." Walter crossed his arms.

"Seems like he misses you, mom." Ralph frowned. "That's weird."

"It's not weird. I miss him too. He was a really good company." She caressed the animal's back.

"Maybe he'd got used to your presence here, right, pal?" Walter tried to touch the pet, but Ferret Bueller seemed to just pay attention at Paige this time. Feeling intimidated by Walter's comment, Paige decided to mask it with some humor.

"Sorry, he likes me more." The woman laughed, squeezing Bueller fondly. "Hey, baby, mommy really needs to go now, but promise you I'll visit." She held the pet in front of her face, using a thin voice for talking to him.

"Mom, you are just _my_ mom, and I was thinking... since you and Walter are friends now, why don't we eat here together tonight?" Ralph suggested. Paige glanced at him, knowing exactly what he was doing.

"Oh, so Walter told you." She pressed her lips together, putting the ferret back on her neck.

"Shouldn't I? He asked." The genius was confused.

"No, forget it." Paige reassured him, shaking her head. "But, Ralph, sweetie, you and Walter have been busy probably for the whole weekend with this... weapon, and I'm sure you two are exhausted, there's clearly no meal prepared, and there's no reason for us to disturb Walter, okay? Maybe another time."

"Actually, I ordered a pizza half an hour ago, and as hungry as I am I can't eat it all by myself." Walter risked. He would love to have dinner with the three of them one more time.

Paige could see Ralph struggling to hide a grin. Of course he'd done it on purpose. He knew she was coming at nine, and he probably begged Walter to order the damn pizza right before she arrived.

Paige looked at Walter. She knew she needed to be strong. She knew she couldn't surrender all the time. But even though all of that, it was still Sunday night, she had nothing else better to do, and there was no pizza waiting for her in her apartment. It was a rational call, she thought. It shouldn't be so wrong.

"Right, okay. Only because I want pizza. Don't get used to it." She warned her son. Walter smiled.

When the bell rang right after that, Ralph jumped in excitement and went picking up their food. Paige and Walter put on the table quietly, both feeling the air above them changing in a dangerous way.

When the three of them set together on the table, it felt even worse. Paige couldn't put it into words, but there was something totally different in the atmosphere around them that it wasn't there before.

 _He should know how great it all turns out to be._

Family. That's it. It was feeling like family. Except they weren't one anymore. And the resultant sensation was almost devastating.

Paige was nervous. Her thoughts were on fire, contrasting with the silence of the kitchen. While eating, Walter couldn't take his eyes off of her. He wished he could tell her how stunning she was tonight. He wished this to be a regular family dinner, but he was sadly aware they were so distant from this. He could feel the strangeness in the air just as her.

Ralph had to be the one to start a conversation. He introduced random subjects. Paige tried to act as if her skin wasn't burning with Walter's staring, but she wasn't able to keep cool with so many feelings mixing at the same time. So, since Ferret Bueller kept resting on her shoulder during the whole time, Paige took advantage of the animal to distract herself from the current situation, playing with him several times.

After a rough time getting used to the circumstances, they gladly managed to talk better. But Paige's heart just felt real relief when the time came for the two of them to finally leave.

She was finishing to leave the dishes in the sink when she stated, "Okay, it's getting late, Ralph, let's go."

The boy had his eyes tangling with sleep. "Whatever, I just need a bed right now. Dude, this pizza hit me." Walter laughed of his lazy voice.

"Walt, are you sure you don't wanna help with the dishes?" The woman offered one more time.

"Paige, it's fine. Go get some rest."

"Well, okay." She sighed.

The ex-waitress so gathered all of Ralph's stuff and Walter walked them up to the door.

"Bye, Walt. It was great." The younger hugged the older genius, ripping out a lovely smile from the guy. The older genius just observed while Paige unlocked her car and opened the door for Ralph to come in. When she walked back to say goodbye, Walter turned nervous again, concentrating himself in not making any embarrassment move between them like the other day.

Paige crossed her arms, it was cold outside. "Make sure... uh, you don't fall. During the night."

"What?" The genius didn't get it.

"The hole. In the... ceiling. It reached the loft. You can, you know, fall from there." She explained herself, and the man noticed she was just clumsy as him.

"Oh, uh, right." He smiled anxiously. "Ahm... Ferret Bueller. It's still sleeping on you."

"Oh, yeah." Paige bit her lip, grinning and caressing the animal's back. "He is so quiet I almost forgot he was there." She was making a move for catching the animal from her shoulder and returning it to Walter when she had an idea. "You know what? I should bring him home for a while." Paige smiled.

"The ferret?"

"Yeah. You took my kid for a weekend. I'm taking the ferret." The woman teased him.

Walter crossed his arms, mimicking her. "Alright. You won't make it a week. You know he can be very annoying sometimes." His lips curled on the side.

"Hmmm, is that a challenge? Let's see, then." Paige and Walter grinned at the same time.

"I'll send you his needs."

"Deal."

"Good luck."

"Thank you." She laughed, taking a small breath. "Okay. Good night," Paige made a pause. _Sweetie, honey, love, my nerd_. So many pet names she almost let out, but instead of it… "Walter." It was the only one she could say. Another thing on the get-used-to list.

"Night, Paige."

 **XX**

 **Reviews are appreciated! Tks guyssss**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for taking so long. Now I'm in my winter break (here it's not summer, sadly), so I'll be able to update faster. Hope you like it!**

 **XX**

"Son, I don't understand what you want." As much as he was trying, Cabe was never able to follow the logic in Walter's head. So now he was just staring at the genius with his regular patient face, hoping that at least in some way he could help.

"Cabe, I couldn't stop looking at her the whole dinner! You know I can't keep doing that." Walter was clearly stressed out, walking in circles at the loft in a velocity no one but him could maintain for so long. "And more, things are getting worse. I've reached a point where I'm starting to listen to broken heart songs! Where the hell in this world these songs would've made _any_ sense to me months ago?"

"Seriously?" Cabe crossed his arms, his lips wanting so badly to curl up.

"Yeah, you know the one with a guy named Zayn and a random blonde named Taylor Soft? It just describes me so well right now and..."

"It's Taylor _Swift_. And geez, Walter, you're worse than I thought. Love songs? You need a doctor immediately."

"Well, I don't see Toby around anymore and that's why I'm asking for your help." Walter rolled his eyes.

"Alright. But the things is: do you wanna _look_ like you're over her or be, indeed, over her?"

"I thought one thing leads to the other." He scratched his ear.

"It's not that simple, son."

"Maybe it is. Just let me try, okay? I don't see many alternatives around." The genius was getting impatient.

"Okay, but if you wanna look like you're over her, it's just walk your talk. Acting." The older man spoke as if everything was so obvious, even though Walter didn't seem to have the gift for acting.

"How, damn it?" The genius raised the tone a bit.

"Hey, calm down. Let's think of something." Cabe took a deep breath, when an idea quickly came up onto his mind. "Well, people in this situation usually go date other people."

"Oh. You know I've never been this kind of person." He nodded.

Cabe shrugged. "You weren't the kind of falling in love either."

Walter sighed sharply and stopped walking. He was totally messed up. He had been feeling so lucky for having a friendship with Paige after everything that had happened. He couldn't risk losing it. But he also needed to learn holding back his feelings under the carpet as soon as possible.

"Are you sure I should?" The guy glanced at his second father. Cabe was surprised he was considering.

"It wouldn't hurt to give it a try, kid."

"Well, it's a coherent idea. I'm not sure if Paige would be fine with that. But I will consider it, cause I... I trust you." Walter tried to smile and turned away thoughtfully, stepping slowly to sit on the edge of his bed.

"That's exactly my goal, son." Cabe whispered only for himself hearing. With so many years of experience... The agent knew Paige and Walter wouldn't face reality until it felt awfully _real_.

XX

 _"Are you sure you two are not using Ralph as an excuse to see each other more often?"_

 _"We are friends now, we don't need any excuse for seeing each other."_

When Cabe asked him the other day, Walter kept mad to the man for hours for insinuating such a horrible thing like that. But now, watching the woman arriving with her son at the university campus made his stomach jump inside. He was definitely missing her. And it had been only a week since their last meeting.

"Hey, Eisten." The woman was trying new names for him, he'd noticed how she couldn't get herself used to coming back calling him just _Walter_.

"Hey." He smiled.

"Ready?" Ralph's backpack was almost as big as him. And it would be just an one-night trip.

"Ready, buddy. I can see your mom was a little anxious about the trip." He pointed the size of the backpack.

"He should be prepared for any possible scenario." Paige crossed her arms.

Walter and Ralph were heading to an excursion from a university program. Many professors and students will be visiting mines, for a geology study. Ralph was excited when Walter told him he got the two of them a vacant.

"You should trust me. I assure you we will come back unbroken." Walter suppressed his bottom lip.

"I do. But I'm still a mother." She emphasized.

"Mom, there will be guides. Geology will never be so fun as today."

Walter turned his attention for the kid. "You don't even know how it's gonna be there yet, pal."

"I've searched for pictures on the internet. It's huge!"

"Oh, boy." Paige widened her eyes.

"Okay, stop scaring your mother already. Go pee before we leave." The bigger genius snapped the younger's shoulder softly.

"Fine." Ralph shrugged, heading himself to a public toilet.

There were already many people waiting for the bus on the university campus. The road should take two hours. It wasn't so far.

Some of the nerds around were sitting on the grass, appreciating the shy sunshine of an early cold morning. Paige glanced at Walter and decided to sit down too, soon making a move for him to join her. Reluctant, he did. Walter had his mind disturbed with thoughts he had been carrying for a while. Since his conversation with Cabe, he wasn't sure of how he was supposed to act next to her. He wished he could know more about how she was handling her single life, but it was impossible to find out anything without being indiscreet.

"Is there something wrong?" She frowned.

Tired of having zero ideas, his mind gave up on trying to create a proper and not invasive question. "Paige. Are you seeing someone?" Walter blurted then.

"What?" Her skin was lightly red. It could also be because of the cold, though. "I mean, why are you asking me this so suddenly?"

"Don't know, I was just... thinking about it." Even though Walter has ever been directly honest, in this situation it sounded odd the fact he hadn't planned an excuse for the question.

"I am not, Walt. Relax. I think it's too soon." She bit her bottom lip. _Actually, I don't know if I will ever want to kiss anyone else,_ Paige strived to keep it to herself. Then, it occurred to her that perhaps Walter was probably considering doing it himself.

So, it was her turn to ask, meanwhile trying to ignore the sudden and unpleasant pressure on her chest. "Why? Are you?"

"Nop." He managed to sound as natural as her. Walter hadn't thought any far from that for the dialogue. Now that the odd silence came between, he was glad that at least he got his answer.

"Hey, guys, the bus arrived! It's time!" Ralph came back bouncing.

Thank God the kid got there at the right time. Walter stood up, stating clearly that their previous conversation was over. Paige's eyes narrowed due to his pointless embarrassing talk, but she quickly decided to drop it. Whatever he had in mind, it shouldn't matter anymore.

Walter helped her up while she changed subject. "For who should I give the permission signature for minors?"

"Oh, I guess it is for the uniformed guy over there." Walter pointed.

"Okay. I will be right back to say goodbye." The ex-waitress tickled her son's nose playfully, leaving the boys and stepping towards the uniformed guy.

All the people who were going to the trip were forming a queue. The organization staff wanted to check their tickets before entering the bus. The two geniuses arrived almost in the end of the queue, and that was when a blonde girl approached the two of them.

"Geez, look how many handsome geeks are going in this trip today. This is gonna be so fun, don't you think?" The forced and annoying flirty voice was the reason why Walter checked twice if the girl was really talking to him.

Ralph firstly frowned at the scene. She was clearly not wearing clothes for that kind of trip. Her legs were exposed and her blouse had a big cleavage. The boy bet she was around 25, but he wasn't sure. His analysis was disturbed by the bothering fact that she was doing physical contact with Walter. Ralph glanced around, making sure his mother was totally out of sight. Then, he and Walt exchanged a desperate look.

"What? You don't speak? I actually like the shy ones." The unknown blonde rested her hands on the genius's chest. Walter thought he'd got used to female's physical contact, but it turns out only Paige's felt natural to him.

"Ahm, I don't know you." He mumbled, struggling to be polite and keep a natural face.

"And why does that matter? Oh, how cute, you have a little boy with you." She noticed Ralph for the first time. The kid rolled his eyes. He already knew she must be the kind of girl who just goes to college excursions for catching up some sex.

"Look, I... I don't think it is a good idea." Then, Walter tried to pull her out.

"Okay, fine, let's do it in your way. My name is Jen. Yours?"

"Uh, W-Walter." He stammered.

"Walter! That's a beautiful name. Perhaps we could spend some time together during the trip. You know, I had a friend to come along, but she gave up in the last minute." The blonde was resting her arms on his shoulder now. Walter didn't know what else to do. Ralph seemed to have no ideas either.

"Okay, I know you're thinking." She continued. "I'm not just a dumb hot girl looking for handsome fellas. I have the best grades of my year. Science is always in first place, right?"

Walter frowned for a few instants, relaxing in sequence. That woman was totally out of every stereotype he had ever seen. Or she was an awesome liar.

"Jen, right? Well, I'm afraid I'm not interested." The bigger genius was scared of Paige showing up any time.

"Playing hard to get… I can see how you're enjoying my perfume." Jen whispered on his ear. Ralph started to freak out, he wasn't liking any of that. "After the boy is asleep we could, you know…" she kept whispering, but the kid could hear her perfectly. The blonde led her hand to hold his shirt collar. Walter was just frozen. 

In this exact time, Paige was walking back. She identified the boys from distance, but she was totally not expecting to find a blonde girl almost grasping her ex, in front of her son, with that huge smirk stamped on the face and in the middle of an amount of students.

Paige had no time to understand what was going on over there. Her anger and indignation just got her cracking until she was finally behind the blonde, clasping her shoulders and turning her around. "Hey, who the hell are you?" The ex-waitress realized how impulsive she was acting only after it was already done. But she didn't care. And if Walter was enjoying the blonde, she would hit him too, for flirting in front of her twelve-year-old.

"Who are _you_?" Jen rebutted, frowning.

"I know exactly who I am, who my guys are, and what we are doing here, but you, otherwise, are surely not in this equation." Paige tried to convince herself she was not out of control. She was just a mother trying to protect her son. And maybe also protect her friend.

Ralph eyes widened with his mom's reaction. Walter just watched everything speechless.

"Your guys? Well, so you should keep an open eye for the prince charming over there, because he was totally enjoying my…"

"Go. Away. Now." Paige interrupted before she had the chance to hear the rest of the sentence.

The blonde snorted and rolled her eyes. Then, she walked away, pushing Paige lightly before leaving. 

"I can't believe it. You have a kid with you. What a bitch." Paige shook her head.

"Mom, language."

She ignored her son and turned to Walter. "Sorry saying you are my guy. It was the only way I imagined she would leave so…"

"Relax, Paige, I don't mind. You don't need to be jealous."

"I'm not jealous!" It was her turn to snort. "I just can't believe, I mean, she was scratching herself on you in front of everyone else. This is ridiculous."

Ralph wanted to laugh. She was one hundred per cent jealous.

"She left, mom. Keep cool."

"I'm fine already. I'll wait you two get in the bus before I leave." Paige changed subject, allowing her heart to slow down again.

Minutes passed. The queue was big, but Walter and Ralph kept talking the entire time so they didn't get bothered with the waiting. Paige, on the other hand, was silent. She didn't speak a word since the scene with the other woman, wondering if she had really done the right thing. What if Walter truly liked the blonde? What the blonde would do on the trip, with Paige out of the way? She started to feel frustrated. Not only because of Jen, but because she was insecure again, and because she started to picture scenarios she hadn't considered until today. She couldn't unscramble her feeling of considering the possibility of Walter dating other people someday. And the worst thing was surely the fact that she couldn't hide her emotions about it.

The woman was so immersed in her imagination that she only noticed the time of entering the bus had arrived when she heard Walter saying to Ralph: "Go first and take us a sit, I'll be right behind you."

"Okay. Bye, mom." Ralph kissed Paige's cheeks and headed into the bus.

"Love you, sweetie." She frowned, as Walter instantly grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the side of the bus.

"Are you okay?" He went strictly to the point.

"Yeah, I'm good." She nodded. Walter made that look who wasn't convinced, so Paige let out a breath. "Right, I just don't know if this trip is a good idea."

"Because of Ralph or..."

"Yeah, of course, because of Ralph. What else it might be?"

"I don't know, you seem weird." Walter dropped his shoulders.

"No, I'm sorry. It's just… Look, if you… if you wanna hang out with that blonde it's fine for me. I shouldn't have done that without knowing how you were feeling." The woman looked down.

"Paige, I told you to relax. She is not my type."

"Do you even have a type?" Paige copied his previous unconvinced glance.

"Good point. But even if I had and she was it, it is too soon. Remember?"

"Too soon. Okay." Paige nodded.

Walter gave her a tiny smile, which she corresponded with a reassured one. So, the genius gave her a clumsy hug before saying goodbye and entering the bus. When Walter sat down beside Ralph, who was staring at his mom through the window, the kid turned to face his mentor and sighed.

"Walter. What happens when it's not gonna be too soon anymore?" Ralph was afraid of the answer. Walter was impressed with his ability of reading lips. Sometimes he wished Ralph couldn't understand things so well.

Then, 197 gave the answer he knew it would hurt both of them the less possible. "We'll see when we get there, buddy."

XX

"I had a weird reaction when I saw a girl hitting on him." Paige took a big bite in her burger, avoiding Happy's eyes since the minute the mechanic brought up that subject in the conversation.

"Well, you should've considered the possibility." She shrugged.

"I swear I did!"

"Paige..."

"Hap, c'mon, why can't you believe me?" The ex-waitress was getting tired of Centipede always making double-meaning comments about her friendship with Walter.

"Because neither you can!" Happy smiled at the two nervous blinks Paige's eyes sagged.

"What do you mean?" She stopped chewing her fast food to stare at Happy.

They were currently hanging out at the food court of the mall, after having an intense day together. The two girls had spent the whole afternoon looking for baby stuff at the stores. Happy and Toby had already started the adoption process of a beautiful baby girl, that's why the mechanic went for the advice of the professional on the topic, Paige Dineen. The fact of the liaison already being a mother was managing to shut down almost all of Happy's nerves. Paige was being really supportive.

"Okay, in honor of our friendship, I'll be honest with you." Happy left her burger inside the paper box, releasing her hands to gesticulate. "Paige, all this rapprochement with O'Brien sounded way too sudden for all of us."

"Yeah, for me too, but what can I do if he had a really good argument?"

"Shhh, let me talk first." Happy interrupted. Paige rolled her eyes, resting sharply her back on the chair like a petty teenager. "The first thing is... doesn't feel weird to you being okay with him so overnight? It's like all of your anger dissipated. You were mad, upset, freaking out and then... you were not. This can't convince my mind."

The ex-waitress sighed as she took her juice, just in order to start biting the edge of the straw. "It's not like that. Sometimes it still haunts me." She looked down. "What I had with Walter was... magic. The way it ended really makes me sad. But when he came to me the other day and showed me another point of view for the entire situation... I just decided to see it in a more mature perspective. I'm done of stirring up feelings that don't do me any good."

"Like 'alright, me and him don't work as lovers so we will be best friends forever'?" Happy mimicked Paige's voice, snapping out a giggle from the woman.

"Kind of it."

"So about the difference between you two..."

"It doesn't matter cause we're not dating anymore."

"And about Florence?"

"Also not my business." Paige had uncertainty on the voice though.

"But about the lie…?" Happy was clearly teasing. Paige stared her friend for short seconds.

"Stop asking difficult questions already!"

The genius paused. "Look, I don't wanna tear you down, Paige, but... it is so obvious I can't figure out why you can't see."

"See what?"

"That you're fooling yourself!" When the mechanic noticed Paige wouldn't answer, she continued. "The truth is that you _do_ want to go get back together with 197, but you are using the friend excuse to protect yourself. It goes out without saying that deep down you wish the rapprochement to end up with you two dating again. You just can't admit it, because you're afraid of getting hurt. More hurt. This friendship is the way your brain found to be close to him without feeling scared. But the truth is you keep falling in love for the guy every single time you see him."

One, two, three seconds until Paige thought of a casual answer. "Am I talking to Toby or Happy? I'm confused." She joked, losing the focus on purpose.

"We are almost the same person now." Hap grinned.

The liaison laughed briefly before turning serious again. "Well, anyway, I think you're wrong. It isn't like that. It's crystal clear that me and Walter are better like that. Dot."

"I won't argue with you. But just don't come tell me later I haven't warned you."

"It won't happen."

"Alright." Happy came back to her burger.

"Alright." Paige concluded, feeling an odd sensation rising inside her belly again. Then, she shook her head. Happy wasn't right. She couldn't be. Paige shouldn't let people mess up with her mind. And she wouldn't. That was it.

 **XX**

 **It's big again. Guess I have troubles with writing short chapters. But whatever, I hope you liked it. Review if possible, please!**


	4. Chapter 4

**It was a fun chapter to write. Sorry for the possible mistakes.**

 **XX**

 _Hey, friend, do you wanna watch a movie any time soon?_

Soon. _Definitely_. It has been almost two months since they had that conversation, but it was only tonight that Walter and Paige decided to give action to the idea. He suggested it during a phone call in the middle of the week, and she accepted. Kinda naively. It was the first time they would be hanging out alone - without Ralph - since the beginning of the rapprochement. Perhaps it was a way to seal up their friendship for good. For emphasizing and finally turning concrete how they could be true friends and nothing else beyond. It almost sounded as if both of them wanted to prove themselves the same thing.

It was a simple evening. No special snacks. No wine. No arrangements. No kisses during the boring scenes. No romantic environment. Just... the television, the couch and the two of them. Sitting with enough distance. Despite this all, Paige was surprisingly comfortable over there. Maybe it was because of a welcome feeling of casualty above them - just as those evenings after cases, when they used to pick up a random channel to watch together in order to chill. She was glad for that feeling of normality tonight. Of routine. Of _home_. Of course, she kept reminding herself this wasn't home anymore. So instead of associating the softness on the air with the past, she reached a conclusion that maybe... the delightful evening was because of their awesome friendship working through - and she could live with this excuse under the circumstances.

It was an action movie. Walter had spent almost two hours choosing it during the day. He would never tell Paige about that, although the woman was totally sure he'd struggled a lot to pick one she would prefer way more than him.

"Are you okay?" Her concerned eyes directed to the side, meeting his whole picture. Paige could tell when Walter got bored with a movie, but staring at the TV with wide open eyes was not a regular symptom for his boredom.

"I'm sleepy." In four years knowing the guy, Paige was confident she'd never heard him say those words more than twice.

She raised her brows. "Whoa, so this must be the worst movie ever. I've seen you distracted when you don't like it, but sleepy… that's new." She giggled.

"No, this one is not that bad actually." His lips quirked up. "I'm the one who is not sleeping very well lately." Walter adjusted his position. The excuse sounded way strange to her.

"Weird. The guy who is always plugged on 200V." she joked, tilting her head to him. "Are you sure you don't want to change for another film? A documentary could whip you up." The woman smiled softly.

"I'm sure. This one is fun, even though those tricks would never turn out right in real life."

 _Now you see me_ was a successful movie. But of course Walter would have an unusual opinion about it. The ex-waitress bit her bottom lip, trying to suppress the grin. She kind of missed his comments.

"Well, but you can't deny the authors did an amazing job. I mean, for normal people." Her playful face made him laugh lowly, his eyes still striving to maintain themselves opened.

"Alright, I can say that to make you happy." He teased, making her grab a pillow and throw at him. Their simultaneous laugh sounded so familiar again. Paige's heart accelerated. "You know, I've actually tried magic at some point over my adolescence." Walter glanced to his hands.

"Really? Oh, my God, it should've been so awesome!" Paige angled her position to see him better.

"In Ireland people didn't think that." His disgusted face was referring to those jerks from his childhood, and Paige rolled her eyes just by remembering of their existence.

"Well, don't tell me you've stopped because of those heartless kids. I mean, you are a genius, your tricks must have been... geniuses!"

Walter was biting his tongue. "Yeahhhh, kind of. I did have pretty good tricks, but no public. Besides, you know I'm a fan of explaining my thoughts for people, and magic business requires keeping everything as a secret. I wouldn't make it so long. So it doesn't matter anymore whoever made me stop." He shrugged.

"Hm. It's a fair point. But I still want to see one of your tricks some time. I bet I wouldn't understand your explanations anyway." Her excited expression lighted up his. Damn, everything about her was so contagious.

"I'll think about it." He grinned.

Walter was having a dilemma. He was truly enjoying the evening, the fellowship, her voice, her jokes... But there was something inside his tired body intensively begging him for some sleeping. He could swear he'd never wanted it so badly. He used to control fine his resting time. And even though he wasn't sleeping too much for a couple of months now, he still had everything under control until tonight.

It didn't make sense. The genius spent several minutes for figuring out an explanation, but he only got some hypothesis. Perhaps it was the lavender smell he'd got so used to feel all over his bed. In the first week of the broke up, the scent was still all over his sheets and covers. After that, it started disappearing slowly, and only now the man noticed his nights somehow also started to be worse any second. He hadn't paid attention on those facts until tonight. Feeling the lavender again probably made his subconscious associate it with recovering his ideal conditions for sleeping well.

He was so damn vulnerable. Walter even tried to be mad by realizing Paige hadn't only messed up with his emotions, but also with his neurons. With his hippocampus. With his physical brain. This wasn't fair. His brain was supposed to be just his. However, no matter how much effort he could make, the genius was not capable of being mad to the waitress. He glanced at her a couple of times during the movie, cautiously for her not noticing – he kind of lost the ability for being discreet, once it wasn't necessary to use it when they were dating. He had no idea of why he decided to come up with a friendship between them two. Sometimes it sounded as a dumb idea. Or beyond that, the worst idea ever. He loved her. Everything about her. Even details she probably doesn't know she even has. He was aware of that. So he hated being around her and not being allowed to scoot any closer. Sometimes it felt so unbearable to him that he wished he could undo the morning at Kovelsky's, when they'd made up as friends.

But then, she laughs with a random scene of the movie. And he changes his mind completely. Perhaps this was the best idea ever. He couldn't picture himself living without that giggle anymore. And now, he could have it. Not in the ideal way. But it should do. It _would_ do.

Walter wasn't sure of when Paige's strong effect dawned on him. He wondered if it was an EQ issue the fact he loved and hated that in the same time. The genius faded with the realization that he might never find out. He sighed, before deciding to stop torturing himself with those grueling thoughts. Walter adjusted his back, determined to pay attention on the rest of the movie. Unfortunately, though, the guy ended up falling asleep right before watching an unique scene entirely.

Paige couldn't help smiling when she noticed. He seemed so peaceful.

The woman swore to herself she would finish the movie and head back home instantly. But instead… this wasn't exactly what really happened.

XX

 _Monday, 8 a.m._

The unusual silent garage was filled by the slow breathing of two people who didn't know where they had ended up the night before. But just as if the destiny was tired of watching that scene for so long, it decided the time had come to cut it off. That's when the calmness was disturbed by the creaking metal door being rudely opened; the sound being followed by the annoying voice Paige hadn't heard for a long time.

"Walter, I can't believe you didn't tell me about the negotiation with Mrs..." when Florence raised her face, she froze. The ex-waitress was still confused, glancing around with furrowed eyes after waking up startled by the racket. Paige's mind couldn't associate so much information at once. What was she doing at the garage? And... Why was there an arm around her waist, blocking her moves? Then, the most restless doubt: had everything about the break up been just one of those realistic nightmares? "Oh, boy." Florence shook her head, snapping out of her daze. "I'm so sorry, Paige. A-are you guys back together?"

The question made her fall directly into reality. Paige followed Walter to Florence with her gaze at least three times before answering.

"What? No." Her head ached. What the hell was going on? "We were... we were just watching a movie last night. As friends. I think we fell asleep after a while." She stared at the television, still on, reorganizing and reviewing her memories. "I have no idea of how _this_ happened, honestly." Paige gesticulated toward her cuddling up with O'Brien.

That's when it came to her of how awkward was the fact she was the one who had woken up with the noise, meanwhile the genius was still sleeping like a baby. He used to wake up so easily.

"Oh. Well, whatever happened, I'm sorry, it's just... it's already our work time so I haven't considered the possibility of..."

"Florence, you can relax." More awake and processing things better, Paige removed her hair from her creased face. As long as she wanted to freak out by bumping into her coupling with the guy, Paige was trying to sound natural. It was her first conversation with Flo since that awful night.

The blonde let out the breath of air she was holding. "Boy, this is awkward. I'm nervous."

"You shouldn't be so unsettled." Paige was keeping her half-sit position, tentatively not sliding off of Walter's embrace. "He was so tired yesterday. Maybe he needs some extra resting this morning. I just don't wanna move too much, you know, he is a light sleeper." Paige almost caressed the man's temple, while adjusting his front hair as she loved to do.

When Florence realized Paige's low voice in order to avoid waking up the genius, she copied the woman, stroking her own arms - clearly embarrassed. "Oh, I guess it's okay."

"I will set up an alarm for him and leave soon. Don't worry."

"Alright, so I'm... I'm leaving."

Florence sighed and headed herself back to the door, slowly as if there was still something stuck inside her throat. Anxiously shutting down her insecurity, the blonde turned around to Paige one more time. "Uh, well, just for the record... me and Walter have never been this kind of friends." Flo pointed the two of them with her hands, slightly clumsy, making the ex-waitress blush hard with the earnestness. Besides the embarrassment, Paige also felt an unnecessary relief. She already knew about Walter's lack of interest on Florence, but it was nice to hear that despite the chemist's feelings for the guy, she somehow wanted Paige and Walter to get back together. "Well, I'll call Cabe and we will come over later." Flo stated after Paige didn't answer.

When she opened the door for finally snapping out of there, the woman on the couch called her attention again. "Flo, uh..." Paige paused as the blonde looked back. "Please, don't tell him this ever happened."

Florence smiled. "I got this. Don't worry."

"Thank you." Paige concluded, allowing the chemist to leave.

Alone with the genius, Paige laid back on her previous position. She was worried about Walter. Falling asleep first, not waking up with girls talking around him... none of that were normal, but he didn't seem sick as well. Paige checked his temperature with her hands. She also noticed he wasn't sweating. And his pulse was as calm as sea waves on a summer sunset. So, she decided dropping her concernment. She must stop acting as if she knew everything about the guy. What if his sleeping habits had changed? She couldn't know. So moving on from that, the woman focused on enjoying the feeling of being warmed up by his body again. Even though the amount of time since their last night together, she remembered the feeling exactly. It was so good to be, in fact, living it again.

Walter had slept first. Paige remembered that. She also remembered the way her eyes also started to get tired after a while, yet she was sure she never approached the genius in attempt of cuddling up. Maybe it was something that happened naturally when they were already sleeping. Just as if both of them missed and needed that.

Paige shook her head. That wasn't right. She didn't need that. She didn't miss that. Walter was her _friend_. She shouldn't be feeling that stuff right now. But there she was. Her head fitting precisely on the curvature of his neck. Her legs above his. His arm around her. And the last thing she wanted was leaving.

Sighing, the woman kept steady. Any wiggles were risky. At some point, she recalled her conversation with Happy at the mall. Damn, now she didn't know anymore if she really disagrees with all the mechanic's statements.

Almost without any control of herself, Paige raised her hand to carefully play with his growing beard. She had a thousand of flashbacks by that. And being with him right now felt easing just like those times. Just like if she was drowning and then he saved her.

This all could be so beautiful if it wasn't for the fact she didn't want to feel that way. The ex-waitress was inhaling his perfume and she was sure that was the reason for her confusion. She couldn't still be in love with him. She couldn't want to have all that closeness again.

"It's just a moment of weakness, Paige. Everyone has that. It's pretty normal." She closed her eyes, whispering to herself.

In that moment, everything hurt. Not having him hurts. Having him hurts. She felt stuck on that dilemma, as if she wasn't able to unleash herself of that. It felt like all her negation was collapsing on the floor, and all she could see now was how vulnerable she was to that man. How her subconscious was constantly pining for him. How that proximity made a hole on her days. And although everything was sliding out of the carpet right now, Paige didn't felt ready for confronting those feelings. She was terrified.

She needed it to stop. She couldn't handle the war rising up inside her chest. Not again. Not after cleaning up all the mess – or just hiding it. Happy wouldn't be right. So, as much as it hurt her, Paige knew she exactly what she needed to do. She had to take over the control again. She had to withdraw.

Subtly, then, the woman eased back. "Walt. Let's get you upstairs. C'mon." She whispered next to his face, pulling his arms for sitting him up.

"Hm?" The genius grunted, without opening his eyes.

"You are sleeping on the couch. I'm getting you to bed." She explained, holding his wrists firmly.

Walter gave her two or three blinks, clearly not even half awake. Maybe it was better like that, Paige thought. She helped him standing and then started leading him toward the stairs, without dropping his right wrist. Walter dragged his whole face on the way, even trying to open his eyes for good. He failed on that.

"What time is it?" He mumbled in a way Paige almost didn't understand. She looked at his floppy walk and smiled.

"It's still midnight. C'mon." it was a lie. She knew he wouldn't want to rest more if he knew the correct hour of the day.

Paige helped him upstairs. He was definitely still half-sleeping. When they achieved the loft, the woman guided him till the bed. Paige watched him lie down and grab her old pillow, holding it with him.

Clutching her own hands anxiously, she sighed. "I'm leaving, okay? Good night, Walter." The ex-waitress supported her left knee of the edge of the mattress, whispering close to him.

Paige thought he was already asleep again, but right before she could step off of the bed, he grabbed her hand.

"No, stay over tonight." Walter muttered the sentence Paige considered her weak spot. _Stay over tonight_. He used to say that a lot when they were together. "Come to bed." His eyes were still shut.

"Walt, I can't. We are not together anymore, remember?" It stung her spitting those words.

"Please. I miss you." He was trying to pull her hand. Paige knew he wasn't going to remember any of that later.

"Walt, sweetie. Listen to me." With her free hand, she caressed his cheek. "Honey, I can't, okay? I'm sorry. Really." Paige bit her lip harshly. He didn't answer anymore. "Just get some rest, right?"

The temptation of kissing his face was strong. But Paige knew she might fall apart any second, so the safer way was just leaving. She made the genius drop her hand. As promised, the woman went directly to his phone, setting up the alarm.

Without anything else to do over there, the ex-waitress sighed deeply. It was time to go. She headed downstairs and grabbed her purse. She wanted to disappear as fast as possible. Yet, when she opened the door for stepping out of the garage, an unexpected appearance made Paige jump startled.

"What the hell?" Her expression was angry, as if she knew exactly what Toby was going to say.

"Ralph called in the middle of the night, worried because you didn't come home last night. I went looking for you and found your car over here, so I was wondering if I should come in and stumble into an unpleasant view or..."

"Stop now. We just fell asleep on the couch." Paige rebutted, closing the door behind her and walking towards her car.

"Paige..." Toby, who was leaning on his own car with his arms crossed, now started to run after the woman.

"Toby, for the love of God, _stop_ acting like my father. Leave me alone." She interrupted, not glancing back.

"Whoa, says the girl who is acting exactly as a stubborn daughter." He reached her over, preventing her to enter the car.

"I don't need to give you explanations about my life." Blocked, Paige shot his eyes with hers.

"Paige, I'm just worried about you. And Ralph. This affects everyone, even Walter." The shrink was being patient.

"Oh, c'mon, you don't give a crap for Walter!" She rolled her eyes in exasperation.

Toby widened his eyes, lightly withered. "It's not like that and you know it. Besides, you had a fight with him too."

"Yeah, but then I apologized." Raising her brows, Paige was struggling to not fall apart in front of the guy.

"Did you? Truthfully?"

"Well, yes." She affirmed, despite not being so sure anymore.

"Saying just 'I'm sorry' isn't apologize." Toby crossed his arms again.

"I know exactly what I've said. Now you stop with this teasing and let me go."

Toby shook his head. "Your son is with Hap on my apartment. Do you want me to drop him home?"

"No need. I'll pick him up there."

"Paige. I just want to say one thing." The shrink held the liaison's shoulders. "Stop torturing yourself. You know I'm here to talk if you need. Whenever you feel ready, I'll be here. Okay?"

The woman glanced at the ground, recovering the rhythm of her breath. "I appreciate it, Toby. But I've got everything under control. I just wish you could believe me."

Toby could see through her eyes. She was a mess. He knew that. But he wouldn't push her anymore. At the right time, she would speak.

"Alright. So go." He stepped off of the way, allowing her to unlock her car.

Without another word, Paige got in the vehicle and quickly headed out of there. Toby watched her go, but instead leaving too, the shrink stayed there. He sat down on the sidewalk, waiting calmly. His travel to the garage wasn't over yet.

 **XX**

 **Hi, loves. I hope you liked it. Honestly, I'm missing your reviews. Let me know what you are thinking. Pleeeeeeeeeeease!**


End file.
